Oculus Quest 2 Review

Last year

OculusQuest

blew us away with its wireless, plug-and-play VR. And as if 2020 wasn't a big enough year for video games (with new consoles on the horizon), Facebook is releasing a brand new

OculusQuest

2 on October 13. , with tweaked controllers, improved specs, and a sleek white look - not to mention an even more affordable $299 price tag.

Oculus Quest 2

7

PICTURES

Design and features

The Quest 2 looks a lot like its predecessor, apart from the new paint job and a slightly smaller frame (which Oculus claims is 10% lighter than the original Quest). The body of the helmet is made of smooth white plastic, without

geometric patterns

Where

swiss cheese tracking sensors

– only four cameras along the front corners. Gone is the rough fabric covering the helmet body, resulting in a more unified look that's likely to show dirt more easily - but also be easier to clean without the fabric. The strap, however, uses a white fabric, which will almost certainly get dirty after sweaty use. (It also looks a bit cheaper than the original Quest's wristband, though its less rigid nature makes the Quest 2 more wearable.) Oculus sells a new Elite wristband separately, which uses a plastic halo design with a thumbwheel to to squeeze. which clicks on the helmet at the waist. It's a worthy upgrade, if you can make the extra cash, and there's even one with a battery, for those who spend hours at a time in VR.

Speaking of money, the Quest 2 is $299, making room-scale VR more affordable than ever. This price is for the 64GB model, and as a Quest owner, I found 64GB more than enough for my usage. If you plan to load your Quest with heavier games, movies, and other files, you might want to look to the $399 version, which has a whopping 256GB of storage (twice more than the upper level Quest 1). p>

The rest of the Quest's specs have been improved too, with a resolution per eye of 1832x1920 (down from 1600x1440 on the original Quest), 90Hz refresh rate (down from 72Hz), 6GB of RAM (vs. 4 GB), and a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2, which

Qualcomm claims to have twice the CPU and GPU performance

of the Snapdragon 835 from the previous headset. I haven't been able to test 90Hz support, as the games haven't implemented it yet, but hopefully the developers will roll out 90Hz support soon after launch.

The interpupillary distance setting (IPD) now only has three settings, rather than being able to adjust it millimeter by millimeter. If you wear glasses, the Quest comes with a glasses spacer, and you still have the option of getting prescription glasses for the helmet as well, but this is a minor downgrade.

Finally, the controllers have a design update, with better haptic feedback, four times the battery life (according to Oculus) and a larger size with plenty of room for your thumbs to rest without risking accidental pressing. on the buttons. It's a double-edged sword, however, which I'll get to in a moment.

Setup and Requirements

The Quest 2 is just as easy as its predecessor, giving it a big advantage over more complex PC-based VR headsets. Once your headset is charged, all you need to do is download the Oculus app to your phone and follow the instructions to set everything up. You'll connect to Wi-Fi, put AA batteries in the controller and wait a few minutes for the latest firmware - oh, and log into your Facebook account, which is required for the Quest 2. Those who already use Facebook regularly can't No problem with that, but for those philosophically opposed to Facebook, this is a legit dealbreaker for a device that sadly has no real competition.

Best Gaming Chairs

16

PICTURES

You'll then need to draw the boundaries of your room, which is just as intuitive as on the original Quest: the headset will use its cameras to 'cross' a vision of your room, and you can paint your boundaries along the floor. If you get too close to these limits in-game, a virtual grid will appear and warn you that you're about to stick your hand through the wall - or worse, your TV. The bigger the space the better - I use my Quest in a 6x9 space, but have settled for much smaller in the past. You may lose some freedom of movement in some games.

That's all there is to it: once you draw your boundaries, your Quest will remember them unless you take it to a new room, in which case you can take 30 seconds to draw them again. The Quest has built-in speakers, but I highly recommend using a

good pair of headphones

Where

earphones

for more realistic audio. You'll also notice that the charging cable is much shorter than the original Quest's, which means you can't charge it while you're playing, that is, unless you buy your own cable. I don't mind (since wireless play is the main draw of the Quest to begin with), but it seems silly that they're skimping on an otherwise cheap part. I got about two and a half hours of intense playtime from the Quest 2's battery, which is similar to the original Quest. It's not a ton of time if you're showing VR to a group of friends, but I find I usually need a break before the two hour mark if I'm playing alone.

Games

Playing on the Quest 2 is just as smooth and enjoyable as the original Quest: just put on the headset and you're immediately placed in the Oculus Home environment, where you can choose a game from the menu. This is, honestly, what convinced me to trade my

HTC Vive

for a quest: you can go from real life to the game in 30 seconds, without having to play. The freedom of wireless gaming is hard to explain - you don't think tethering is a big deal until you play without it, and once you do, it's hard to go back . Oculus' upside-down tracking continues to be excellent, with only minor issues (like when you put your hands behind your head) - more than adequate for the vast majority of gamers. Oculus hand tracking is also fun for games and demos that support it.

Compared to my original Quest, I noticed that the Quest 2 blocks outside light much better. the bridge of your nose - where my original quest had a big gap, quest 2 is almost completely closed, which is a more noticeable improvement than you would expect. The foam is also softer against your face - it's little things like this that push the Quest 2 ahead of its predecessor.

You still make a few sacrifices for this convenience, compared to traditional PC-connected headsets, including graphical fidelity and the inability to play high-end games in standalone mode. Fortunately, Oculus Link is officially out of beta, meaning you can connect to your PC with a USB-C cable whenever you want to play something not available on the Quest - like Skyrim. RV or

Half-Life: Alyx

– or if you just think a game deserves better graphics than Quest's Snapdragon chip can deliver. Oculus Link will also support the Quest 2's 90Hz refresh rate and uses

the same expensive jumper cable

- although there is

many cheaper alternatives

.

The other downside, as before, is the weight. The Quest 2 is lighter than the older model, but still significantly heavier in the front end than other helmets like the Rift S, so you'll need a good snug fit to hold it in place, which doesn't is not comfortable for long periods of time. Nonetheless, I'd take that over connected play any day.

Quest 2's improved specs should also allow for smoother and better-looking games, but for now the experience is essentially the same. The games don't support 90Hz at the time of this writing, and many of them have the same degraded graphics compared to their competitors on PC, although I felt the Quest 2 produced a bit less color banding in games like

space pirate trainer

. There is still a lot of aliasing around the edges in games - even if the screen resolution is high, many games still run at a lower resolution to keep motion smooth, so higher resolution is mostly a screen gate effect inhibitor. Ultimately, graphical fidelity is less important than fun experiences, which the Oculus Quest has in spades. (

Superhot VR

is easily one of the most enjoyable games you can play right now, despite being incredibly low-poly.)

The controllers were my biggest issue with the Quest 2. While I appreciate the longer battery life (theoretically - I haven't exhausted them myself yet), I found the larger size harder to use, especially in shooters like

Robo Reminder

Where

Whip Gun

. It felt like my fingers only covered half of each trigger, making repeated pulls more tiring than the original Quest's triggers. Someone with bigger hands might not notice as much, and I understand it was done for that extra thumb rest on top, but I personally prefer the ergonomics of the stock touch controllers. It's not a compromise, but it's a little disappointing.

Ultimately, the Quest 2 doesn't feel like a huge leap forward. It's more like a bunch of small steps forward in some areas, with a few small steps back in others. But it's still one of

best VR headsets

which you can buy today, for all the same reasons the original Quest broke the mold - and at $100 cheaper to boot. Getting into VR and playing is a seamless, near-instant affair, and the wireless freedom is absolutely invaluable, especially when playing roaming games like the upcoming Big Box VR.

Population: One

battle royale (which I had the chance to demo during my exam period). Diehard users may still prefer the top-tier hardware in the

Valve Index

, and that's not a big enough jump to justify selling your original Quest, but for just about everyone entering the VR space, the Quest 2 is the headset I would recommend.

Purchase guide

the

Oculus Quest 2 is available for pre-order p>

now with an MSRP of $299 for the 64GB model and $399 for 256GB of storage. Both will be available for purchase on October 13, 2020.

See on Amazon

View on Best Buy

View on Oculus